In many areas, but particularly in the area of law-enforcement pre-employment background investigations, investigators report they spend, on average, 40 hours per applicant investigation. During this process, the applicant typically completes a paper packet comprised of questions pertaining to the applicant's life history, including information on criminal activity, financial history, drug history, listing relatives and personal references, employment history, and many other in-depth personal questions. The applicant typically submits this packet to the background investigator along with waivers and permissions (Agreements and Advisements) to conduct a background investigation. The investigator typically uses resources available to him or her to confirm the information the applicant provided in the various documents, to include, contacting past employers, supervisors, neighbors, relatives, references, landlords, etc., which makes up the bulk of the investigator's 40 hours per applicant of spent time.
What has eluded the industry is an automated system to help a background investigator more efficiently and effectively conduct a background investigation.